Katherine Heigl Says Her Adopted Daughter Naleigh Rejected Her

Can you imagine adopting a baby and bringing her home, only to find out she doesn’t accept you as her mother? Find out what Katherine experienced!

Katherine Heigl is opening up about adopting daughter Naleigh, 4, with husband Josh Kelley in 2009 from South Korea, and admits the bonding process took time. Her daughter was 10 months old at the time of the adoption, and Katherine says the baby didn’t immediately respond to her motherly affection.

She started thinking she wasn’t going to be fit to be a mother, and to make matters worse, Naleigh quickly became attached to her husband. Katherine admits it made her “a little bit envious.”

The situation bothered her, so she began to concentrate on work, but realized that wasn’t going to benefit her daughter. She came to the decision to leave Grey’s Anatomy to focus on her relationship with Naleigh.

“The minute I realized [that], I immediately stopped working so much,” says Katherine.

The mother and daughter are now closer than ever, but Katherine says she’d do it all again. In fact, she wants other parents to follow in her footsteps, she told Parent & Childmagazine in January.

“It takes time for a child to trust this new situation and to trust you,” she explained. “My advice is don’t be discouraged. The reward [of adopting] is so great.”